


Sam’s Stupid Attractive Beard

by Yifera



Series: Gossip from the Bunker [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, But all in all, Fluff, I'm really stretching the concept of love confessions, Love Confessions, M/M, Sam Winchester's Season 14 Angst Beard, Season/Series 14 Spoilers, ft. Sam's grief beard, happy fic, more or less, omg there's a tag for it now, some tiny amount of hurt/comfort if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 06:25:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16613639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yifera/pseuds/Yifera
Summary: The one where Sam’s beard accidentally brings light to something (almost) no one expected.Set right after episode 14x04 Mint Condition.





	Sam’s Stupid Attractive Beard

**Author's Note:**

> I can't be the only one that misses that beard already.
> 
> This little thing is un-betaed so please excuse my possible poor use of this precious language.  
> (Update 20/11: Now edited! Love you, Kit!)

When they get back to the bunker Sam is pleased —and honestly surprised— to see Dean does keep his word and tries to socialize a little with the new inhabitants of the bunker, instead of immediately running to his room.

 _Tries_ is the right word to use, as most of the time Dean just manages to stand around awkwardly, wearing a half-hidden grimace whenever he visits a room that has changed or is much more crowded than he expects. Sam doesn’t know whether to feel amused or proud at the sight, but he decides to linger and watch at a safe distance —not wanting his brother to flee if he notices Sam is paying _too much_ attention to his efforts.

He’s standing right outside the library when the door of the bunker closes with a loud clank. Sam looks up right in time to see Jack peeking down the upstairs railing, a big grin lighting up his face. Sam returns it instantly.

“Hey, you guys are back soon!” Sam calls out.

He walks into the war room to the bottom of the stairs just to receive an armful of Jack who basically launches himself at him.

“Woah, hey there.” Sam laughs and, as usual, tries to tamper down the tension that overcomes his body at any unexpected physical contact.

He’s been doing better since Jack came around, Sam reminds himself, only fully realizing then that he wasn’t used to other people initiating any honest spontaneous touch with him. One that wasn’t malicious or intended to hurt him that is, or that didn’t happen when he was in a near death experience. After many of these with Jack though, now Sam can easily relax and return the hug. He lets himself enjoy it as he pats Jack’s back.

“We just came back to grab some things for Jack.” Cas adds, stepping down the stairs much more calmly than his son, but with an equally merry expression.

Keeping a hand on Jack’s shoulder, Sam breaks the hug to look at them both. “In the middle of a hunt? Wouldn’t it had been more practical if someone brought them to you?”

“The witch we were tracking down moves quickly, if we are correct she moved south now, quite close to here.” Cas clarifies. “We learned some things about her and Jack here seems to have a natural intuition for spells, so we thought the travel would be worth the time.”

Jack nods repeatedly, smile still in place. “I am learning a lot.”

A wave of fondness washes over Sam and he relaxes even more, he squeezes Jack’s shoulder  
.  
“I’m glad.” He says sincerely. “Just keep listening to Cas. And be careful, spells are always tricky to handle.”

“I will, Sam.” Jack chirps happily and goes over to say hi to Dean back in the library —who’s currently frowning at something Maggie is holding up to him.

Cas approaches Sam then, a slight smile still on his face. “I can assure you he was much more serious during the hunt. I think he’s just overjoyed about feeling useful.”

“He is. Even without his powers, it’s good to have him around.” Sam’s eyes linger a moment on Jack, and then flick back to Cas. He shoves him gently on the arm, Jack’s affection still persists like a warm tingle on his body, making him want to hug Cas too. Very much so. “For that matter the same applies to you, Cas.”

Cas curves an eyebrow in question, Sam answers with a meaningful look. He knows for a fact Cas has been having a rough time feeling useful since Michael run along with Dean’s body, even longer before that if he isn’t wrong. He suspects Cas being kidnapped only a few days back isn’t exactly doing him any good either.

After a moment Cas sighs. “Well, it does not feel like it sometimes.” He sounds almost resigned.

And there, Sam has just hit jackpot. He feels immediately bad about it, and when Cas’ eyes turn downwards and his expression slowly shuts off, Sam promptly says ‘fuck it’ to himself and reaches for him, wrapping both arms around Cas and pulling him close to his chest. Cas lets a surprised questioning sound but he doesn’t resist.

“Jack wouldn’t be so eager to keep going if it weren’t for you, Cas.” Sam murmurs honestly, he resists the knee jerk reaction to pat Cas’ back and make the hug look more casual than it is, instead he squeezes a little to remark his words. “Thank you, I’m always glad you are here.”

Cas melts a little against him, hands raising to hold at the back of Sam’s shirt, and suddenly Sam doesn’t want to let go. It has been so long since he has shown Cas this kind of affection, he wonders why he doesn’t do it more often.

But there are people back in the other room, so —before the situation can turn awkward for any of them— Sam pulls away. He stays close though, mirroring what he just did with Jack and holding Cas by the shoulder. There’s an annoying voice in the back of his mind that points out the fondness blossoming in his chest isn’t quite the same than what he felt for Jack. Cas smiles up at him, blue eyes soft.

“Thank you, Sam.”

“Anytime.” Sam says, and he means it.

Castiel’s brow furrows for a moment then as he studies Sam’s face, his expression slowly falling, his lips purse slightly.

“Oh. I didn’t know you...” He gestures at his own face making a circling motion around it.

Confused, Sam blinks back at him, a tiny pang of worry shooting through him at seeing Cas look so suddenly disgruntled. Then he gets it, and he can’t help but throw his head back and laugh.

“What? The beard?” He chuckles, scratching a little at the stubble already growing on his cheek. “Yeah, I shaved.”

Castiel frowns a bit deeper and basically outright _pouts_ , clearly unhappy about Sam’s new —or should it be considered old— lack of facial hair.

Sam laughs again and turns to yell at Dean.

“See? Here’s someone else that knew how to appreciate my beard!”

Dean grunts all the way from the back of the library, throwing his hands up, and Sam is officially beyond considering being upset about this subject. Seeing Cas and Dean look like they had just been stabbed by the other in the back is way too surreal to not enjoy.

“ _Really_ , Cas?” Dean says, way too dramatically. “I knew you didn’t have much fashion sense from the start but, come on!”

Cas narrows his eyes at Dean, straightening his back and raising his chin as if he had been personally offended. Well, in a way, Sam guess he has.

“This is your fault isn’t it?” Cas shakes his head, giving Dean a look that screams _disappointment_ in big bold letters. “We can’t have nice things around here, can we?”

“Oh, I am _so sorry_.” Dean says easily, with clear fake annoyance. “Clearly Sam’s facial hair brought you so much joy you can’t live without it!”

Cas looks up at Sam for a moment, then pouts again and shouts back at Dean. “It suited him!”

Sam is now somewhere in between bursting out in fits of laughter and staring at Cas in embarrassed confusion, because honestly Cas is starting to bring the compliment to a level he doesn’t know how to handle.

“My, my, Cas I didn’t know you had developed such a crush for my little brother.” Dean says jokingly, but somewhat starting to look as surprised as Sam for his abrupt passion about something so seemingly harmless.

Sam stares down at Cas, trying to hide his embarrassment with the still lingering amusement, this has suddenly taken a turn he thinks no one was expecting. Cas sighs, looking from one brother to the other with something along fondness and exasperation.

“Well, none of you are very perceptive then.”

And with that he turns on his heels and walks out of the room, presumably to the storage room to search for whatever he and Jack had came back for. Sam just stays there, looking at the now empty hallway with his eyes so open they may just pop out of his skull. He tries to process what Cas had just said, he tries to figure out how can he maybe be misunderstanding—

“Holy shit, did he just...?” Dean gasps, sounding way closer than before.

Sam flinches in surprise, as if electrified, and turns just to see Dean standing in the archway that separates library and war room. With his expression slowly turning into a disbelieving grin Dean points at where Cas had disappeared and back at Sam, as if he had just witnessed the funniest most amazing thing in his life.

“Dude, he really just—!”

“You don’t know that.” Sam blurts out, and maybe he has travelled two decades back to reverse into a teenager, because he is sure blushing like one right now.

“He did, oh my god, guys—” Dean turns around, and Sam would be extremely proud to see him bond with the other hunters if it weren’t totally and unequivocally at his expense. “Am I blind? I mean, that was...”

Dave and Maggie nod, one solemnly, the other just as wide-eyed as Dean; Mary observes the scene in silence, trying to hide a smile behind her hand; Jack just cocks his head a little to the side, sporting his characteristic look of confusion when he’s trying to figure something out. Sam almost breathes in relief at seeing someone doubting this as much as him, but then Jack speaks up.

“I thought you already knew.”

Sam splutters out something probably incoherent, and very logically decides now it’s the time to turn around and run from everyone suddenly gasping and laughing and talking over each other.

He doesn’t get too far before he stops in his tracks, standing in the middle of the hallway leading to his room, with only his agitated breathing as company. Just hold on, he says to himself... because there is something here that isn’t adding up.

As embarrassing as that scene had just been, it doesn’t make much sense for him to feel so agitated. Sam should be laughing awkwardly in the library with the rest, telling them to shut up and thinking about apologizing later to Cas on their behalf...

Instead here he is, with his heart pounding madly against his ribcage and his hands almost shaking, while his brain is slowly but surely getting into a loop around one single thought: that Cas might be into him. As in _I find you attractive_. As in _I get genuinely upset when you shave because I liked how you looked_.

For how long? Sam wonders. To what extent? Is this just a ‘crush’ as Dean called it? But most of all, is he interested in Cas?  
Sam thinks of his words again, how they make him feel now that there’s no one watching and--

“Fuck it.” He says to himself for a second time and quickly turns around to go look for Cas.

**Author's Note:**

> Share with me your thoughts, it brings me a lot of joy to read them! Kudos are lovely too of course.
> 
> Love, peace, have a nice day wherever you are!
> 
> Edit: There's now a sequel!!


End file.
